Word: changchun
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Chinese Communist armies had the initiative in Manchuria. Moving down from the north, they cut the railway that connects the Manchurian capital, Changchun, with Government strongholds farther south. Then the Communists advanced toward Changchun itself. Inside the city, spruce, gimlet-eyed General Tu Yu-ming, Government commander for all Northeast China, tried to decide whether the Communists were out to capture Manchuria's capital or only worry...
Wheel-Shaped City. In Changchun itself-the modern, wheel-shaped city of green trees and creamy buildings which the Japs built as a capital for puppet Manchukuo-the sturdy Manchu citizenry were doing their best to remain calm. During the months of cowboy-&-Indian type warfare around Changchun, civilians could (and many did) pile on to trains heading south toward Peiping. But, with the rails cut, civilians were stuck...
...Many of Changchun's formerly handsome houses were stripped. Russian and Chinese looters, after the Jap surrender, had sometimes taken away even the roofs. The curfew kept citizens indoors from 8 at night to 5 in the morning. Those refusing to be searched by sentries were liable to be shot on the spot. All able-bodied men were subject to call for digging trenches...
...Changchun's situation was not desperate. Some supplies could still come in by air. Some of the citizenry were even running a Changchun Mobilization Committee to bolster the morale of General Tu's troops. The committee supplied candy and cigarets, comforted the wounded, set up tea stalls for the men, bought food for army horses...
Canceled Celebrations. Changchun had seen five armies since V-J day: first the Japanese, then the Russians to toss out the Japs, then the Chinese Nationalists, then (briefly) the Communists, finally General Tu and the Nationalists again. Changchun was getting a little tired of the fortunes of war. On one day last week fell the anniversary of the Communists' withdrawal from Changchun after their short 1946 occupancy. Reported Shanghai's Shun Pao: "It passed silently in a tense atmosphere. The prescheduled celebrations were given...